The present invention relates to a reaction chamber carrying out reactions which sequentially produce 2-anilino-5-thiazolinon amino acid derivatives in an analyzer which automates amino-terminal sequence analysis of protein or peptide.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show two kinds of the conventional reaction chamber carrying out reactions which sequentially produce thiazolinon amino acid derivatives based on the Edman reaction.
The conventional reaction chamber of FIG. 5 is constructed such that sample is adsorped in a glass filter 20 on a membrane filter 19 sandwiched by a pair of glass blocks 18a and 18b within a frame 17, and reagent or solvent is applied to the sample through a flow path in the center of the glass blocks according to procedure of the Edman reaction.
The other conventional reaction chamber shown in FIG. 6 comprises a reaction chamber 24 connected to a vacuum pump 22 and to a nitrogen gas bottle 23 through a three-way switch valve 21 to vacuum the reaction chamber or to fill the reaction chamber with nitroqen gas. The reaction chamber 24 contains a glass cup 26 rotatable by a motor 25, a supply line 27 for delivering reagent and solvent needed for reaction, into the glass cup 26 and a discharge line 28 for removing this reagent and solvent.
However, with regard to the FIG. 5 conventional reaction chamber, the sample is supported between glass fibers of the glass filter 20 and therefore the reagent or solvent cannot be efficiently distributed to the sample. Hence the efficiency of reactions become lower. Thereby, repetitive yield in the sequence analysis is reduced. Such tendency becomes remarkable in the case of treating a micro amount of sample to thereby make unable the analysis. Further, various kinds of reagents and solvents are supplied through a common flow path to the protein sample for the reaction. Therefore, these reagents may be contaminated with each other.
With regard to the FIG. 6 conventional reaction chamber, the structure for rotation must be equipped in the vacuum chamber. Thereby, the maintenance of the analyzer is complicated. Especially, when the glass cup has a small dimension for treating a micro amount of the sample, it is difficult to maintain the stable rotation of such small glass cup.